you guessing? no, that's not it. *waits* ... *GASP!* what kind of girl do you think i AM?!?! noooo, that's not it, either!!!

give up?

i went to the Christmas party last night at my friend pat's house... it was wonderful, having the 4 of us back together again (me, pat, joe, and peyton), for the first time in almost a year, when the four of us used to be inseparable.

anyhoo. for some reason, joe thought i wasn't going to show up to his parents house for Christmas, so he brought my gift.

i almost started crying when i opened it.

first, was a card that read, simply, "aubrey, follow your dreams. i will be right behind you."

in the box? a MANDOLIN.

A FUCKING MANDOLIN.

i hadn't even remembered mentioning to him that my biggest goal this coming year was to get a mando and learn how to play it proficiently, to help the band (and myself) take a bit more of the musical turn that we had been interested in taking. i had totally fallen in love with the mandolin this year, and all the wonderful melodies that come out of it, that i hadn't known possible. i had been counting down the paychecks until i could afford to get one, even if it was just a chincy one, mainly just for the purposes of having something to learn and practice on, so that when the financial day came, i could POUNCE on a good one to love and to cherish for ever and ever.

i sat up until almost 4 am, playing with the thing, and seeing all the wonderful noises that could come out of it (i'm certain my neighbors thank me for this), after learning how to tune the thing (pey? it's a LOT more simpler than we thought...)